1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information-handling systems and more specifically, to the management of resources in a virtual execution environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information-handling systems. An information-handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information-handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information-handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information-handling systems allow for information-handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information-handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Today's enterprises face many challenges, including reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their information-processing operations. One approach that has gained popularity in recent years is virtualization, which allows a single resource, such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device to appear to function as multiple logical resources. Conversely, virtualization can also make multiple physical resources, such as storage devices or servers, appear as a single logical resource.
Another approach, which is complementary to virtualization, has been the adoption of enterprise-wide directories. These directories are capable of providing a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administrating and organizing information about resources of all kinds. In this context, resources can include computing and network resources, operating systems, applications, and other objects, including users. Such directories are typically accessed through a directory service, which serves as an abstraction layer between users and the resources they share. A simple directory service generally known as a naming service maps the names of computing and other resources to their respective network addresses. Each resource is considered an object of the directory server. Information about a particular resource is stored as attributes of that object. More sophisticated directories are designed with namespaces as users, services, devices, etc. For example, the lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP.
A primary enabler of virtualization is a virtual machine monitor (VMM), also commonly known as a hypervisor, which allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. A virtual machine (VM) is software that creates a virtualized environment between the underlying computer platform and the guest operating system, so that the end-user can operate software on an abstract machine. Multiple VMs may be supported by a single VM host server. Today, virtualization software vendors provide vendor-specific software and methods to manage VMM-controlled resources for a physical system. However, managing the execution of multiple VMs across multiple VM hosts, and the resources they comprise, becomes challenging as the size of the virtual execution environment grows. It would be advantageous to have a more sophisticated approach to managing information about of the existence, location, capabilities, availability and current state of VM resources, VM hosts, VMMs, and VMs themselves. The implementation of directory services within a virtual execution environment could provide this ability, yet no solution currently exists.